As many as 135 people may have been killed in the New Guinea soccer stadium stampede

On Sunday, a stampede at a soccer stadium in Nzerekore, southern Guinea, claimed the lives of 135 people. The incident occurred during the final match of a local tournament between teams from Nzerekore and Labe, held to honor Guinea’s military leader, Mamadi Doumbouya. 

Government officials previously said 56 were killed following fan clashes at Nzerekore stadium on Sunday, however the death toll was  questioned. The new figure, which is unverified, far exceeds the official number of deaths at 56.

According to the CBC.ca, some 135 people were killed in the crush at a soccer stadium in southeast Guinea on Sunday, a local group of human rights organizations said, sharing an estimated death toll more than twice as high as the official count of 56.

Most of the victims were children, according to the BBC. 

According to Guinea’s government, chaos erupted after clashes broke out among fans.

Photo Credits: Wikipedia Commons License:

(Above) FC Lokomotive Leipzig fans before their team's encounter with SG Dynamo Schwerin in the East German FDGB-Pokal in 1990.

By Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1990-0414-009 / Wolfried Pätzold / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5425468

Below: Hooligans of Spartak Moscow, November 14, 2010.

By Amarhgil - Self-photographed, Attribution, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12098994

According to AP News, this is the latest in a history of devastating crowd disasters worldwide. Here are some notable examples:

• Dec. 3, 1979: Eleven fans lost their lives in a crush as thousands rushed to enter a concert by The Who at Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, Ohio.
• Jan. 20, 1980: Approximately 200 spectators died when a temporary four-story wooden stadium collapsed during a bullfight in Sincelejo, Colombia.
• Oct. 20, 1982: A UEFA Cup match between Spartak Moscow and Haarlem ended in tragedy when 66 fans were crushed while leaving Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow.
• May 28, 1985: Violence at the European Cup final between Liverpool and Juventus at Heysel Stadium in Brussels resulted in the deaths of 39 fans.
• March 13, 1988: Ninety-three people were killed in Kathmandu, Nepal, when thousands of soccer fans surged toward locked stadium exits to escape a sudden hailstorm during a match.
• April 15, 1989: Ninety-seven fans lost their lives, and hundreds were injured during a crush at the overcrowded Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, England. The disaster's final victim succumbed in 2021 to aspiration pneumonia, a condition linked to injuries sustained in the tragedy.
• July 2, 1990: A devastating stampede during the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia claimed the lives of 1,426 worshippers, primarily from Asia. The crush occurred in a pedestrian tunnel between Mecca and Mina.
• January 13, 1991: Forty-two people died at Oppenheimer Stadium in South Africa when fans attempted to flee violent clashes during a soccer match.
• May 23, 1994: A mass crush during the Hajj pilgrimage led to the deaths of 270 Muslim pilgrims.
• November 23, 1994: A political protest in Nagpur, India, ended in tragedy when a panicked stampede left 113 people dead.
• Oct. 16, 1996: Eighty-four fans were killed, and 147 injured in Guatemala City when panicked soccer fans were crushed and smothered before a World Cup qualifier between Guatemala and Costa Rica.
• April 9, 1998: A fatal crush during the Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca claimed 118 lives on a crowded bridge.
• April 11, 2001: At Ellis Park in Johannesburg, South Africa, at least 43 fans were killed during a soccer match as a crush occurred in the overcrowded stadium.
• May 9, 2001: In Accra, Ghana, over 120 people died when police fired tear gas into a chaotic crowd during a soccer match, causing a deadly panic.
• Feb. 17, 2003: Twenty-one people died in a stairwell crush while trying to exit the E2 nightclub in Chicago.
• Feb. 20, 2003: A fire ignited by stage pyrotechnics at a Great White concert in Warwick, Rhode Island, led to 100 deaths and over 200 injuries.
• Feb. 1, 2004: A stampede during the Hajj ritual at the Jamarat Bridge near Mecca resulted in 251 deaths.
• Jan. 25, 2005: Panic among Hindu pilgrims near the Mandhradevi temple in Maharashtra, India, caused the deaths of 265 people.
• Aug. 31, 2005: At least 640 Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad were killed when a bridge railing collapsed during a procession, sending many into the Tigris River.
• Jan. 12, 2006: During a Hajj ceremony near Mecca, a crush killed 345 pilgrims in one of the deadliest disasters of its kind.
• Feb. 4, 2006: A stampede at PhilSports Arena in Manila, Philippines, during a TV show audition, left 78 dead.
• Sept. 30, 2008: In Jodhpur, India, 168 Hindu pilgrims died, and 100 were injured in a stampede at a temple during a religious gathering.
• July 24, 2010: Twenty-one people were killed, and over 650 injured during a crush in a crowded tunnel at the Love Parade music festival in Duisburg, Germany.
• Nov. 22, 2010: More than 340 people died, and hundreds were injured in a panicked crush at a festival in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
• Jan. 27, 2013: Over 200 people were killed in a fire at the Kiss nightclub in Santa Maria, Brazil.
• Sept. 24, 2015: At least 2,411 pilgrims died in a crush during the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, the deadliest disaster in Hajj history.
• April 30, 2021: Forty-five people died, and dozens were injured in a stampede during the Mount Meron pilgrimage in Israel.
• Nov. 5, 2021: Ten fans died, and many were injured after a crowd surge at a Travis Scott concert during the Astroworld Festival in Houston, Texas.
• Oct. 1, 2022: At least 125 people were killed in Indonesia when police used tear gas after violence erupted during a soccer match, triggering a chaotic rush to the exits.

• Dec. 1, 2024: Fifty-six people were killed, and several injured in Guinea's Nzerekore during a soccer stampede caused by clashes between fans. Security forces reportedly used tear gas to restore calm after fans stormed the field over a disputed penalty.